


elephants on brooklyn bridge

by candidshot



Series: stories from an alternate universe [20]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: AU, Aboriginal Australian Mythology, Animal Dieties, History, Human!Alec, Japanese Mythology & Folklore, M/M, Mayan_Mythology, Time Travel, Warlock!Time travelling!Magnus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2019-10-29 16:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17811227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candidshot/pseuds/candidshot
Summary: Tired of his loneliness, Magnus cast a spell on himself that would lead him to the one who would love him the most. The spell worked except, after a year of living with Alec, his time becomes like an hourglass waiting to suck him right back where he belongs. But if possible, almost like taking a bus, Magnus doesn't mind travelling back and forth through time as long Alec continues to love him.chap 6/6: the rabbit in the moonMagnus is not the only one disappearing. Alec has a message to deliver and it's so important that he would risk getting stuck or lost in time.





	1. Jumbo, the guinea pig elephant

Whenever Alec looks at him, Magnus gives off this feeling of a faraway country.

Not a place like Argentina or somewhere deep on the continent of Africa, but of a land so far removed like it’s away from time.  
  
Alec can’t really put a finger on it, but at times— like now, even though Magnus is sitting before him, all Alec sees is a man whose eyes are looking out far at a place he, Alec can’t see.  

“Magnus, where are you looking?”

And like freshly awaken from sleep, Magnus flexes his eyes then asks, “At my food you’re about to so graciously prepare, where else?”

It’s been two months now since Alec found Magnus seemingly half drowned on the bank of the East River while out fishing. At first, he hesitated, thinking Magnus was some freak or druggie dressed in period costume. But his conscience wouldn’t let him so he did the great deed of resuscitating him— one thing led to the next and before long, Alec’s home became Magnus’s own.

But once nursed back to health, Magnus found everything magical: the flashing lights, honking horns, the fashion, and the sleepless city.

He’s sitting around the table, watching Alec in the kitchen, “No matter how many times I see this, it looks more and more amazing”.  
  
“What’s amazing?” Alec asks, pitching the pizza box in.

“The magic oven”.

“You mean, the microwave?”

And truth be told, there’s no deceit in his eyes nor is there any confusion. Magnus is genuinely amazed.

It’s just that, one moment he’s like a man who’d escaped living in a cave but then snap a finger he’s immediately switches to a man who knows too much.

Still— again, Alec is watching him looking somewhere that’s not here. But when Alec follows his gaze, Brooklyn Bridge seems to be the focus of his pupils when out of nowhere, Magnus says, “Did you know that twenty-one elephants marched over that bridge?”

Alec can’t tell if he’s having an actual history lesson or if he’s being played with, but he replies, “Even for you, isn’t that a bit imaginative?”

Magnus smiles, his eyes still focused at the bridge and while they’re distant and a little sad, they also sparkle in disbelief like an impossible thing had spilled itself into reality, “The sight was unbelievably beautiful”, he says.

Just like this,

As the days go by, many things Magnus says make no sense. His stories are also so fantastical that they leave no space for logic and even if they turned true, they are more accurate than any history book.

And that’s precisely why;

Alec takes Magnus’s hand and fixes his fingers betwixt them, “Sometimes, I feel like you’ll disappear”.

Magnus smiles, Magnus chuckles, trying to distract from time and hauls near, “You mean, like Hog Island?”

“What?” Alec asks, a slice of pizza in his mouth.

“That Island that disappeared overnight”, Magnus tells him, “Everyone panicked when it did”.

Alec sighs, “There you go again”.

“What?”

“Talking as though you’re trespassing time”.

“What do you mean?”

And Alec sighs again, “Just eat before your food gets cold”.  

Magnus chews and drinks and still watches the bridge and a smile washes over him— a sad smile that hurts his heart and never reaches his eyes;

One day,

Tired of his loneliness, Magnus cast a spell on himself that would lead him to the one who would love him the most and always.

The spell worked except,

It worked at a time that feels like an hourglass of sand sieving through a tiny peephole— biding its patience before ultimately deciding to suck him back where he belongs.

He inhales deeply then says, “But Ten Arabian camels also made their way across.”

“What?” Alec turns to Magnus and asks, his forehead furrowed in split confusion and feelings that not even him is aware of, “Magnus, your story is starting to sound as if Noah’s Ark emptied itself over on Long Island”.

Magnus’s chuckle vibrates in a punctuated pondering sound. “That’s exactly what it looked like”.

And Alec rolls his eyes, “Again, you say that as if you were there watching everything with your own two eyes— WAIT! Please don’t tell me you’re Noah”.

“Why would I tell you that I’m Noah?” Magnus asks.

“Well…”, Alec takes the last slice of pizza, “Well, because you’re talking like a shepherd boy herding elephants and camels”.

And Magnus couldn’t help but laugh and it’s genuine this time. “There’s literally no shepherd who herds elephants”.

“Noah did. He herded all kinds of animals. You remember that great flood that wiped out earth except for Noah and his arc of animals?”

And Magnus laughs all the more, “Now, who sounds like they were herding elephants?”

“Magnus—“

“Alexander, stop running with your imagination. I’m not Noah and I’m no Noah”.

Just then,

Alec closes the pizza box, pushes it aside and waits a few seconds, “Then who are you?”

Magnus’s jaws drop.

Because even with his vocabulary, even with all the words in the dictionary, they aren’t enough to explain that—

If only,

If only there was a dove that could fly and deliver his SOS message to himself that;

He’s found the one who would love him but— his magic is wearing off.

 

_\---_

  _magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_


	2. namazu, the earthshaking catfish

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus and Alec go on a date.
> 
> Alec slowly starts to put the pieces to together.

“Is your memory back?”

“Who said I’d lost it?”

Alec nods in thought. It’s true. No such thing was said. “Then why haven’t you told me where you’re from”.

“You didn’t ask”, Magnus shrugs, but he can’t hide the tremble in his voice.

“Then where are you from?” Alec steps closer, making sure to keep eye contact, “How did you end up where I found you, Magnus?”

Magnus doesn’t react. Instead, his eyes are out there somewhere perhaps looking at the bridge or at the river or—, “How strange?”

“What’s strange?”

“It hasn’t yet been months since the earth shook at 7-minutes past 2 o’clock”.

And Alec’s forehead crimples at sheer confusion.

Confused because, Magnus had just swiftly changed the subject as well as, there hasn’t been an earthquake in New York for years or at least, not one at such magnitude for decades or centuries, even.

But with the way Magnus’s eyes are still trained outside looking at a city so foreign and yet, so much like home, Alec is starting to—

“It was madness”, Magnus continues, his eyes far out and distant again— as if looking at an unbelievable thing, “The rumbling noise was as though a vessel had hit rocks, submerged and was trying to pull itself out from the wreck.”

By now, Alec is much closer to him, “Magnus, what are you talking about?”

This time for sure, Magnus’s eyes shift to the bridge, “The tremor made houses shake, chimneys fell and all the boats docked at the piers trembled— the bridge itself rocked as if struck by a hurricane”.

Alec is now beyond himself, not sure whether to retreat or call a doctor. But then how would he explain that Magnus is seeing a world no one else could?

He sighs, swallows and holds Magnus by the shoulders, and in the quietest, tenderest of tone says, “The very thought sounds terrifying”.

Magnus smiles, reaches for and takes Alec’s hand in his and wraps it in soft caresses, “Namazu really thrashed about back then”.

And once again, Alec is taken on a tailspin. “Nama--who?” he asks, confused but at the same time loving the way Magnus’s skin feels against his… the heat, the texture— the affection just below the surface waiting.

“A giant catfish”, Magnus answers with a smile that’s not enough to tell Alec if he’s joking or truly believes what he’s telling him. “The Earthshaker, a river deity”, Magnus continues with laughter in his voice that confuses Alec all the more.

In the end,

Alec concedes, “That’s quite an impressive catfish”.

“He truly is”, Magnus replies with a trail of laughter, “He’s quite the rebellious type so Kashima sometimes have a hard time keeping him in check”.

“Kashi—“, Alec stops and instead asks, “What’s a catfish being held in check for?”

“Didn’t you hear me?”, Magnus asks, looking at Alec like a giant catfish wreaking amok on land was all over the news and every bit much normal. “He’s the earthshaker, he shakes the earth. His biggest crime was destroying Edo and so since then, he’s being held by Kashima, his parole god”. And Alec perhaps needed a timeout but Magnus continues, “But being a deity, Kashima gets busy at times and that's when Namazu takes the chance and escapes... and he’s so powerful that his rampage can be felt across the seven seas”.

Magnus needs to see a doctor, Alec thinks.

But instead, he ends up laughing taking Magnus’s hands in his, “Your fairy tales are original, I’ll give you that”.

But you see,

Beyond his cackles,

In the depth of his mind, Alec is being forced to put two and two together but the ridiculousness of it all makes him conclude that;

Magnus is a mystery.

He’s a hunk of madness walking around on two feet.

And still,

This strange existence is all that occupies Alec’s mind— Magnus: a man of ethereal beauty, with eyes deep yet soft and a body so perfectly carved that every move he makes is like an interpretive dance.

Time passes

And just so,

Somewhere along the way, Alec starts believing in impossible tales.

Then one day in February as winter claws and has Alec shivering Magnus says, “Alexander, let’s go ice-skating”.

Alec sniffles, his eyes wide wondering why Magnus would want to leave the comfort of their fireside to go roll around in the cold but still he asks, “Where?”

“Staten Island”.

Alec’s eyes narrows and his forehead crinkles, “Only one man was able to walk on water, Magnus and he was in the bible”.

At this, Magnus looks at Alec like he’s been living under a rock, “Didn’t you hear?” he asks, and Alec can feel another unbelievable story is coming, “New York Harbour froze over and tens of folks have been walking from Manhattan to Staten and—”, Magnus suddenly freezes, realising he slipped and that Alec is watching him keenly, waiting for him to continue.

Namazu is one thing but;

“You know what? Let’s go for a walk, instead”.

Alec doesn’t contest, “Where to?”

“Wherever you like”.

.

The night blows cold but there’s something in the far reaches of Magnus’s eyes and in his voice that Alec couldn’t resist so as per Magnus’s wish, they’re on a walk.

It’s a weekend night, so the streets are busy with all sorts of people buzzing around with cars jammed in traffic honking their horns and folks gallivanting on the sidewalks— and the further they walk downtown, loud laughter filters out from crowded bars that are blasting music of all genres. From the corner of his eyes Alec looks over at Magnus, watching the way the lights dazzle in his eyes in the greatest of all wonders.

Alec takes Magnus’s hand and holds it tight as they wiggle their way amidst the raucous but cheery festivities of the evening and Magnus smiles, happy that for all the years he’s lived and often dreamt about and that of all the concoctions and experiments he’s tested that somehow, he’s perhaps found just what he’s been looking for— a love that loves him back.

Shoulders brushing shoulders, they’re walking down the streets of Brooklyn having a sudden burst of emotion… an overwhelming feeling like a pot that’s bubbling on fire and can’t help but spill over its brim— feelings of happiness and of anxiety and it's all very indescribably awesome and so, Magnus tightens his grip around Alec’s arms, waits a bit for even the smallest gesture of assurance that everything is really happening because truth be told, Alec’s very existence has already lured and intoxicated him.

Ten minutes into strolling Magnus asks, "Are we lost?" while observing the very empty alley they’re heading down.

Alec chuckles, "Fear not. The entire Brooklyn is my backyard".

“It’s mine too”, Magnus mumbles, before then quickly wishing Alec wouldn’t pick up on his utterance. So he keeps his nonchalance, looks around, unable to imagine anything worth seeing around this part of town.

But so much for wishful thinking;

“So, does that mean you’re from Brooklyn?” Alec asks.

And Magnus wants to bite his tongue off, “Something like that”.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means—“

Just then,

The sound of instruments meet their ears— sounds of strumming guitars and a perfected piano, accompanied with tuned drums and soft vocals leaking from a street so small it’s like a squeeze.

"And we are here", Alec announces with pleasure.

“Here, where?”

“My secret place”, Alec leads Magnus inside by the hand.

Step by step, Magnus enters at Alec's lead, passing the entrance of a dimly lit lounge which later gives view of an open air restaurant and bar with a live band on stage serenading with calm, mellow and soulful music – fire hearths scattered about to keep the cosiness of the crowd.

"I hope you like jazz and blues", Alec whispers in Magnus’s ears as he leads him to a small table in the corner.

Magnus is coloured with surprise— his eyes loitering around at the unexpected cosy hideout and a few minutes later, they’re ordering cocktails and finger food— servings of spicy wings, fish fillet, onion rings and baked potato with celery and sour cream.

Magnus turns to Alec and smiles, “I suppose I’ll be needing your gym tonight”.

“Don’t you already use it when I’m not around?" Alec asks, a smile in his pupils, "Isn’t that why you’re so buff?”

Magnus actually laughs, “I definitely don’t. I’m a natural”.

And Alec runs along with the humour, “Whatever you tell yourself, Magnus dearest”.

Soon,

With the food tasty in their mouths and the cocktails warm in their bellies, they laugh and tease each other about nonsense and everything— Magnus even forgets about the hourglass and so, seven-thirty tumbles over into nine-thirty and nine-thirty tiptoes into ten o’clock and on and on until the band finishes up and is getting ready to leave.

"So, are you up for it?” Magnus asks with such a treacherous grin that Alec looks around him before answering.

“Up for what?”

“The stage, of course”.

And in the silence of the place,

Alec actually laughs out loud.

.

By the time they are ready to leave it’s because the restaurant is closing

“I’d a great time, Alexander”.

Alec smiles, “I did too”.

Walking back, save for a few cliques still dawdling about, the streets are now about empty.

And in that moment, Alec finds himself pulling Magnus by the hand, pulling him forward and in an embrace before leaning forward and—

Unplanned, their first kiss dawns on them.

Alec’s tongue is in Magnus’s mouth and is gently brushing in a manner of testing and exploring— pressing deeper into the passion they’re creating and Alec thinks that his world is tilting— and if it really is, then it's ok because at the moment he doesn’t mind being enwrapped in a giddy world with the person he’s travelled from a very far away time to meet, his person of desire whose mouth is fiercely yet adorably warm and moist and comfortable against his lips.

And in that moment, Magnus truly believes the world is incredibly serene in every way that even if he could send a message to himself saying, ‘Self, you won’t believe it but guess what? I found HIM! I found the one who will love me most and right now, we’re passionately kissing with our silhouettes against the moon’, Magnus is sure his self wouldn’t believe him.

So he inhales and smiles into the kiss, his lips still tasting Alec’s laughter and he’s now smiling because he’s sure that if such a thing were possible then his self would reply, how very romantic, but you’re right, I don't believe you, then go back to his potion making like the whole conversation never happened.

So Magnus decides it best to keep this moment in the present, investing his all and doing all he can with his tongue and his hands and his soft moans— making sure that his body will forever remember this blissful incredible moment of Alec warmly pressed against him and as he’s lost in these waves of emotion, his brain loses to his heart and he says, “Alexander, I hope I don’t disappear”.

With fading happiness Alec asks, “Why would you?”

Magnus smiles like a sad piece of fairy tale.

But at two in the morning on an empty street with the night surrounding them and time on his tail hurrying him, Magnus’s smile is sad but also a whole lot happy, “Because time is out of my control”, he replies, taking Alec’s hand in his, forever grateful he got his opportunity.

But Magnus knows that when that time comes—

Even when the last grain of sand inevitably passes through, Magnus knows he won’t have the heart to let Alec go.

“Magnus,” Alec calls him, “Guess what?”

“What?”

"Tonight I decided".

"Decided what?"

“I love you.”

Magnus is so stunned that he can’t even answer…

But the shine in his eyes, and the smile around his lips are enough to make Alec jump and kiss him in glee.

.

But the hourglass doesn’t care.

Unnoticed, a strand of silver slithers from Magnus’s head.

\---  
magnus x alec

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yes, I was actually writing this chapter when that one shot I posted recently popped up in my brain but as a different scenario. Anyhow, leave me a note. I wanna know your thoughts XD


	3. Jaguar and the falling sky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a flashback to when Alec and Magnus first met... or rather, a flashback to when Magnus woke up in Alec's apartment not knowing the date nor where he was.

From the morning rain, tiny drops hit against the windowpane.

Magnus blinked once, then blinked again as he slowly pulled from sleep and came awake with eyes hazy, looking through the window at the rain that trickled down the glass in streams.  
  
In his half-awaken state, the morning sky was slowly falling.  
  
Inhaling deeply, trying to make sense of his surroundings, his attention was soon pulled back into the room of white-washed walls dotted with a few paintings and a spring bed that took up half the room. When he shifted, trying to turn and look around some more, he suddenly shut his eyes tight, grimacing while wondering why his entire body felt tight like he was drained of nutrient or rather— with a groan he sat up in bed, his eyes then shifted to the other half of the room that was fitted with a tiny mahogany table that had nothing but a photo frame without a picture. The table was squeezed betwixt the bed and a closet that was neatly tucked in the corner. Taking his time, Magnus peeked through the tiny closet door at the hangers laden with black, grey and white coloured clothes. When there was nowhere else for him to look, he tilted his head to the side trying to massage his neck and that was when he noticed the ceiling that was as white as flour was high, white and wooden with an open ceiling that connected the bedroom to what he supposed was the living room and kitchen – which explained why his stomach had shifted when a gentle whiff of something maple-baked reached his nostrils.  
  
Leaving the crimpled blankets and warm mattress, he wrapped himself in the sweater he was somehow wearing and stood by the window looking out at the rain that was really coming down in raging streams— though hardly making splashes as it hit the glass and made its way to the ground.  
  
With this hush of rain, the hemisphere was changing into spring.  
  
And as if with a sudden longingness to touch the rain, Magnus pressed his forehead against the windowpane and before long, he’d cracked the window open, wishing to smell the rain. But when a sudden cold draught bit into his skin, he shrieked and was quick to shut the window with a slam bigger than he’d intended.  
  
And that’s when he heard, “Are you up? Come to the kitchen”.  
  
The voice startled Magnus causing him to bump into the glass window again before hopping his way across the room, his heart racing wildly because clearly, the spell had worked… the spell had taken him to the one who would love him and who he would love… all went as planned except, the more he looked around, nothing of the place looked familiar and so his heart would not stop beating like it was about to jump from his chest.

Unable to even find words, he quietly tiptoed past the table with the empty photo frame and made his way to the kitchen- his heart still pounding like the sounds of taiko drums. The kitchen too, had white walls outfitted with grey cabinets, three hanging ceiling lamps and a simple wooden table that was very colourfully laden with peeled persimmons, kiwi slices, bananas, tangerine pegs and a jar of oolong tea honey.  
  
When Magnus fully entered, he heard Alec busy searching in the cupboards below the counter, “I’m glad you’re finally awake”, he greeted Magnus in lieu of ‘good morning’. When Alec finally stood up and turned around, Magnus’s heart started to beat much faster and much louder like it was about to deaf him– this man he came to meet had long legs, long arms, curious yet soft rainbow eyes that looked up at him before gracing him with a relieved smile that rode his lips, “Welcome back to the land of the living, Lazarus”.  
  
Magnus couldn’t stop the smile that scaled over his own lips as he ogled at Alec’s kissable grin. He then shifted to the side in a bid to hide his excitement before then turning his attention back to the wooden table that also had waffles and a pot of good smelling coffee. He finally took a seat, “Lazarus is a good rhyme but the name is, Magnus”.  
  
Alec also sat around the table, “Well Magnus, breakfast is served”.

Magnus nodded in appreciation for suddenly he felt as though he hadn’t eaten for a few days, but just as he was about to take his first bite he noticed Alec keenly watching him so he asked, “So am I supposed to take it that you’re nameless?”

“It’s Alexander”, he chuckled, “But that’s a mouthful so call me, Alec”.

Magnus nodded, “Well then, I’m in your debt for breakfast and some news attire, Alexander”, he winked, finally digging into his food.  
  
Alec waited then asked, “So, did I pass?”  

Magnus gave him an eyebrow quirk, “My apology but- were you taking an examination of some form?”

“You can say that”, Alec answered but there was a bit of shyness in his eyes, “It’s my first time making breakfast for someone other than myself”.

Magnus took another bite of his waffle, “That’s really sweet of you”, he answered while sneaking a peek at Alec who was back on his feet digging into the cupboard for something else--- giving Magnus the perfect chance to take in the full flavour of Alec’s full form… his tallness with his muscles and tones in all the right places--- his bearded cheeks looking like a cologne model and his hair – black and low at the sides with a  fringe hanging over his right eye– ,“But that’s just the way I like it”.  
  
Alec didn’t turn around or even replied but Magnus could tell he was pleased.  

It wasn’t until he was seated again that he took a sip of his coffee and said, “I like stories”.

Again, Magnus looked at him confused, “…do you now?”  
  
“Yes, very much so”, Alec continued like he and Magnus had already done a whole background conversation on stories, “And they don’t even have to be real, just convincing”.  
  
That’s when Magnus realised what was truly happening--- Alec’s roundabout way of asking him where he came from. They both fell silent leaving nothing but the sound of knives and forks hitting ceramic plates and coffee cups heavy against the wooden table and just a tenor below that, was the low humming of rain still falling as though it meant to keep them inside all day.

“And if you need a place to start”, Alec bit into a slice of kiwi, “You can start by the river”.

Slowly, Magnus nodded, trying to buy time to put two and two together but he still had to ask, “Why by the river? What river?”

Without judgement, Alec looked him frank in the eyes and answered, “Because that’s where I found you”.

Magnus took a moment to think then poured himself another cup of coffee, “Then I suppose Jaguar intervened”.

“Who’s Jaguar and intervened in what?”

Magnus kept his eyes averted thinking it would’ve been good if Alec could read minds because then, Magnus wouldn’t need to explain the bizarreness of his existence, as in, perhaps he was very far away from time.

“Jaguar is a Mayan god”, he simply replied, watching Alec watching him curiously.

“Okay…”, Alec answered with the same curious eyes, “And why would this Jaguar intervene?”

When he’d casted the spell, the moon was silver over him but when he woke up on the bank of the Hudson River, the sun was hot in the sky— time was never supposed to change but it did and it felt as though he was living a cycle from the Mayan calendar where daytime and nighttime represented two worlds— a world where the living and the earth were associated with the day, and another, where the spirit world and the ancestors were associated with the night. Jaguar, was always thought to be more at home at nights which by extension made him a part of the underworld which also meant that Magnus, being the offspring of a feline father and a human mother, was allowed to pass through the two realms.

“Jaguar, is reason we have rains and rivers”, Magnus replied instead because, from the look of things, how could he have explained anything?

Yet, at the same time… deep down, somehow Magnus felt as though he could trust this man to believe and accept him or just simply accept without believing him. But be as it may, Magnus decided to keep his secret just long enough to make sure he’d truly found the love he’d tricked time to find.

And just as Magnus wished, Alec didn’t press the matter further and instead pretended to be more interested in the crumbs of waffles on the plate before he nonchalantly asked, “So then, what you want to do today? I don’t think I have enough clothes to share”.

But the rain can always tell what we’re feeling.  

It continued to fall in sneaky streaks and intermittent splashes as if telling them it was best they stayed inside and get to know each other.

“Would you mind telling me what day today is?” Magnus asked, once again keeping his eyes averted.  

Alec wasn’t even suspicious when he replied, “Tuesday. Today is Tuesday”.

Magnus nodded, “And the month?”

Right then Alec’s forehead furrowed, “March… we’re in March”, he answered, obviously curious, “Going somewhere?”

“No…”, Magnus cleared his throat because he knew his next question was a risk that could get him put away in an asylum for madness or burning at a stake but still, “Year… Alexander, what year are we in?”  
  
At that, Alec stopped eating and looked at him, long and hard like Magnus was an open book he was reading, “Today is Tuesday March 23rd, 2020”.

And Magnus felt his own breath leaving him— to think that he’d travelled centuries into the future.

The teacup fell from his hands and spilled everything.

“Magnus, are you okay?” Alec rushed to his side.

Magnus remained still, his face unreadable because he was neither confused nor scared. Instead, he had a flow of every imaginable emotion mixing and blending in him.

“Yes, there’s no need to worry” he replied, then knowing for sure why he felt so weak. It wasn’t that he lacked nutrients but more like, “Alexander, one more question— exactly, where am I?”

“You’re in Brooklyn”.

The gasp Magnus released startled even Alec.

“Magnus, are you sure you’re okay?”

“I will be if I can just get a glass of water”, he answered.

Just as Magnus had suspected, instead of opening a portal to another town or even another country, he’d instead time travelled and judging from how severely drained he felt, he was sure he’d lost most of his magic.

“Worry not your pretty face”, Magnus told Alec to ease the worry he saw in Alec’s face.

Magnus was also sure and that the only thing keeping him stable was that he was somewhat tethered to some magical energy in Brooklyn. He’s time travelled but his destination never changed.

This also meant that unless he stayed in Brooklyn,

“Do you need to see a doctor?” Alec asked, now on his knees.

Magnus shook his head and forced a smile, “Not necessary. I will be just fine”.

Unless he stays in Brooklyn,

He’ll lose whatever little magic he has left but even that also has its problem in that, it works like an hourglass meaning— once the sand of time falls through he’ll run out of what little bit of magic he has left… and then, even before his appearance fully changes, he’ll get zapped away somewhere in time— where not even he can find himself.

 

\---  
magnus x alec

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do let me know what you think XD


	4. the rainbow serpent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus's magic continues to fade and it's showing. He thinks it's time to tell Alec the truth... but at what cost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so forgive me but the timeline isn't so linear in this chapter. It starts in the present then goes back when Alec first found Magnus then comes back to the present then... well, I didn't want to use separators so I hope the tenses will help ^^

Just when Magnus thought he could run away from time, time came, knocked at his door and dangled before his eyes a near-empty hourglass.

Magnus let him in with a sigh, finally accepting that just perhaps, he was born to find love and then lose it before it even blossomed.

He also realises that after a year of dodging and hiding, that he’ll now have to tell Alec the truth.

But before he gives Alec full control of his heart, Magnus wants to know for sure that he’s equally loved. This way, when the time comes, he’ll have known it wasn’t all for nothing--- he would feel sad leaving but his heart wouldn’t be disappointed.

One day on Alec’s day off, Magnus walks into the kitchen and says, “I’ve been in your care for a near year now and not once have I seen you courting a lovely soul”. 

Alec momentarily stops but without looking at Magnus he stays busy dusting the high ceiling and when his thoughts are gathered he takes a quick glance over at Magnus and replies, “I don’t see you hooking up with anyone either”.

“Well…”, Magnus nods, a smile poking at his cheeks, “That’s because my interest lies elsewhere”.

At this, Alec turns fully around to face him. “Elsewhere like where?” he asks, wiping dust from his face. “Where exactly does your interest lie?”

And Magnus— as though seeing the hourglass urging him to make hay while the sand lasts, he frankly replies, “Here, Alexander. Right here beside you in this tiny white washed room in this dirty and utterly loud city”.

And it’s a sight to behold, the way the crinkles of worry in Alec’s forehead are replaced with relief.

“You knew?” Alec asked.

The smile now moves from Magnus’s cheeks and to this eyes, “Knew that your interest lies in men?” he replies rather than asks, now walking over to Alec in calculated steps, “Yes, Alexander— and thank goodness”.

Holding his breath and looking Magnus straight in the eyes, Alec asks, “Just how good are we talking?”

And the smile finally washes over full on Magnus’s face, “So good that I’d travel time to find you again”.

Alec hops off the stool, puts the dusting brush down and beckons Magnus closer and without a word, he brushes his lips against Magnus’s.

So of course, time gets jealous and thinks it best to remind Magnus about the inevitable future that draws nigh.

Magnus pulls away from Alec and sighs.

“What’s the matter?” Alec asks, his concern genuine and wholesome in the way he pulls Magnus’s face to his and scours his eyes for answers.

Magnus sighs again, looking outside at the sky being indecisive if Jaguar will let it rain.

“Looking at you closer, you don’t look so good”, Alec takes Magnus’s hands in his, his eyes full with worry for as time passes, Alec notices that the brightness in Magnus’s eyes and the iridescence of his skin are fading. “Magnus”, he calls again, “Should we go see a doctor?”

Magnus shakes his head, looking down at both his hands and indeed, the bones in his fingers lay sharp and the colour of his skin, like a pasty sort of half-white chalk. “Alexander, you’re my best medicine”.

Normally, Alec would be flattered but he knows well that romance and worry go hand in hand and deep down, Alec has this icky uncomfortable feeling that Magnus is slipping away from him.

Alec sighs, his memory dragging back to that sunset when he’d stumbled upon Magnus while out fishing.

At first, he’d thought him to be an overdosed druggie dressed in period clothes but just when Alec was about to step past him, one look at Magnus and Alec felt a tightening in his chest.

It was Magnus who went looking for Alec but it was Alec who saw Magnus first and at that very instant, Alec’s heart decided on who it would love.

Their first breakfast together was three days later.

“Alexander, what year are we in?”  
  
At that, Alec stopped eating and looked at Magnus long and hard like Magnus was an open book he was reading, “Today is Tuesday March 23rd, 2020”.

And Magnus felt his own breath leaving him— to think that he’d travelled centuries into the future.

The teacup fell from his hands and spilled everything.

“Magnus, are you okay?” Alec rushed to his side.

But Magnus only shrugged it off by calling Alec pretty then asked, what made you save me?

Picking up the pieces of ceramics before taking back his seat around the table, Alec answered, “You didn’t fit the usual suspect of a druggie or a vagrant”.

“How so?”

Alec shrugged, “Well, your beard was well-trimmed”.

But truth be told, Alec taking Magnus home was almost out of his control.  

He saw this man, this strange and beautiful man and his heart immediately decided to love him.

Still deep in thought, munching on a piece of kiwi, Alec blamed it on the sun— the orange rays that evening had added life and light to everything so of course, he would’ve mistaken the source of that ethereal radiance to have been Magnus. Even though Magnus was out cold, unconscious, he radiated colours of refinement so much so that even though he slept for three days... and even though it was raining cats and dogs outside, inside that white washed apartment, down to the very air he breathed, Magnus was a kaleidoscope of colours.

And it was not that Magnus reminded Alec of a carnival in Rio, but more like that story he read of a rainbow serpent that slithers across landscapes forming gullies, and replenishing water lost from periods of drought.

Sometimes, Alec feels like a rainbow serpent dwells and hides inside him.

After all,

In a mere three days, Magnus was waking this uncouth beast Alec’s very existence was direly trying to let sleep:

Now, here he is almost a year later, the uncouth colourful beast in him is already on the loose and desires one man only.

“Magnus,” he calls, looking at Magnus so earnestly that even Magnus’s heart keeps skipping beats, “Magnus, others have a white circle for a halo but you, you have a rainbow”.

Magnus looks at him pleased but curious as to where the sudden poetry is coming from. “Whatever do you mean?” he asks, a smile on his lips and over his jaws.

Alec watches him for a long while, thinking back to that story about the rainbow serpent that laid dormant until time had found it a partner.  

Just like the rainbow serpent in him.

“Did I find you or did you find me?” he asks, watching the curious look in Magnus’s eyes.

Magnus tilts his head to the side and again replies, “Whatever do you mean?”

So Alec takes Magnus’s hands in his again and whispers, “I feel like I must hold you and never let go”.

Magnus can hear his heart crying a little, “And why is that?”

Alec traces Magnus’s cheeks with his knuckles and replies, “Otherwise you might disappear”.

It’s only when those words leave Alec’s mouth that Magnus bites down on his bottom lip and asks, “Alexander, do you believe in magic?”

“Of course I don’t,” Alec shakes his head, a crinkle in his forehead, “But I do believe in luck and coincidences”.

Magnus nods while looking Alec frank in the eyes. His palms getting sweaty and his heart ached, beating louder than any siren. But he doesn’t have the luxury of time so he reaches out his hands for Alec to take then says, “You remember how you said you liked stories?”

“Yeah”.

So Magnus clears his throat, “Then how about I tell you one?”

“…okay”.

And as Magnus belays his tale, the sky stands heavy but though with a damp atmosphere, there’s no sign that Jaguar would send rain to hide the tears.

By the time Magnus finishes telling Alec that not only is he from another world where there’s magic and where legends are true... and also that wretchedly, he’s from another century and how he ended up in Alec’s time after a spell he cast to find his special someone was somehow powerful enough to take him across time… and that’s probably why he’s going grey and pale because his magic is weakening and it’s only a matter of days or even hours or seconds before he’s sucked back into time— at the end of it all, in the heavy overcast sky, a rainbow starts to fade even though it was never fully formed.

Alec doesn’t move and Magnus wonders if he’s even breathing.

But when Magnus finally does peek over at him, expecting to see Alec looking at him like he’s crazy and should be locked away in a madhouse, Alec instead asks, “So did you find him?”

Magnus’s heart jumps at the unexpected question, “Find who?”

Alec is still looking at him as though trying to read his naked thoughts and see the truth that he’s so good at hiding, “Find the person your spell sent you chasing after”.

Magnus exhales, “No, I didn’t”, shaking his head, “Because he found me”.

At that, a ball of anxiety blocks the air in Alec’s throat and he struggles to ask, “Anyone I know?”

“I hope so”, Magnus replies without looking away, hoping that Alec will read his eyes well.

And indeed,

Alec reads them well for immediately, he closes the gap between them, eagerly wanting to caress Magnus’s cheeks, play with his beard and kiss his nose and his eyes each time he blinks. “Magnus, how much longer do we have?”

“Days, hours… maybe a few seconds”, Magnus answers, “But already, I feel like a part of me is missing”.

Alec inhales long and deep, “Then tell me what to do and I’ll do it”, he urges, anxiety making him tremble, “Magnus, can’t I come with you?”

Magnus shakes his head, the smile on his lips and in his eyes telling Alec that he wishes with all his might that he could let him but, “I don’t even know how I’m getting back”, he replies with eyes heavy with water that he won’t allow to fall.

“What do you mean?” Alec takes him by the hands and holds him close, his head pressing against Magnus’s own.

“It means that with the little magic I have left, I won’t have much control”.

“I hate this”, Alec sighs, his voice full of anguish but his eyes are warm as they look at Magnus.

“I hate it too”, Magnus tells him, holding Alec’s hands in his, “Which is why I’m going to use the last of my magic to get back. At least that way I have at least a little control over where I’ll end up and then I can start again”.

“Start what again?” Alec asks, his eyes unblinking with worry.

So Magnus leans across and kisses him, “My journey back to you, of course”.

Alec presses his forehead against Magnus's and with a heavy exhale asks, “And how long will that take?”

“I don’t know”, Magnus returns the gesture, his eyes closed while he inhales Alec full in his lungs, “But I was born and you’ll be born so…”

Once upon a time,

_Alice asked the White Rabbit, “how long is forever?”_

_And the White Rabbit replied, “Sometimes, just one second.”_

Really,

That’s how long a year with Alec amounted to— a single second.

On a day,

Down by the river, Magnus chants, blinks his tears away and before he knows it, time carries him back with it.  

A few months later,

In the season of summer, Magnus is out in the woods picking herbs with his childhood friend.

“You said it yourself, Magnus, technically, he’s not yet born so you really have all the time in the world to get your spell right and go back— never mind leaving poor me alone here to go find the love of your life”.

“Catarina, stop being so dramatic”, Magnus laughs, piling cuts of echinacea, feverfew, gingko, ginseng and goldenseal into his basket, “Even if I somehow manage to perfect the spell… and if I don’t but I do end up living until 2021… considering folks like Lorenzo and all the other enemies I have around, I still worry, will he even remember me?”

Catarina takes the basket from him and gives him a reassuring smile, “I don’t know. But that’s why it’s called magic… it’s supposed to be magical”.

Magnus groans, “That still doesn’t make me feel better”.

“I’m sorry”, she hangs onto his arm, consoling him, “But it’s possible and that’s really all you need to believe in for now”.

Magnus nods, one hand carrying Catarina’s basket of herbs while the other hand is tucked in his pocket caressing the red cloth trinket Alec had given him on their last day together.

But as if magic is hell-bent on defying time,

Not a day after letting Magnus go, Alec is going about his business when he spots a face that’s the splitting image of Magnus.

Alec nearly chokes in his surprise, for no doubt, the Magnus who’s supposed to have gone back in time is making his way around Brooklyn streets like he’d been doing just that all his life.

With eyes wide and his heart beating wildly, Alec ran up to the man who looks like Magnus and grabs his left arm, “You’re back already?” he asks, his forehead crinkled and his breathing out of breath, “But how is that possible?” his questioning continues, “It hasn’t even been a day since you left me to go back to your time so how are you back already? Why didn’t you come find me? Did you trick me? Was all that a lie?”

The man who’s the splitting image of Magnus looks at Alec and replies, “That wasn’t me”.

\---  
magnus x alec

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know, things seem to be moving slow and fast at the same time but~ I hope you won't find it distracting. It's intentional and for a reason. 
> 
> Thank you for reading and do let me know what you think XD


	5. baku, the dream eater

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get a bit more complicated. Not moments after saying good-bye, Alec meets a man who looks exactly like Magnus- though he's claiming he's not.

“The amount of killings in New York is worse than in 1664 when the British army conquered the then, colony of New Netherland”, Magnus clicks a finger and switches the television off.

Alec has encountered magic twice in his life. The first time was when Magnus stepped in the river, muttered some indecipherable words then disappeared leaving nothing but ripples. The second, was just now, leaving his eyes wide and his heart beating fast partly because he’s still confused that the very probable love of his life had just literally disappeared into time but only a few steps later, to find that same probable love walking down the street in front of him like he’d been there all along waiting for that moment.

“The only difference is”, Magnus continues, “Is that you don’t smell the blood and death… it reeks of piss and shit instead”.

Alec gives a little smile, remembering that not so long ago, the other Magnus had spoken similar words:

 _“I find it hard to believe that in just a mere century New York turned out to be nothing but filth”, Magnus had scoffed, turning up his nose._ This was when they were on their way to the river, to a point where magic was leaking enough to get Magnus to hop back in time.

The smile still lingers on Alec’s lips but his eyes are a bit more distracted, looking around the high-end penthouse and can’t help but wonder what this Magnus would say about his minimalistic apartment. But he soon sticks a pin in that thought at noticing a familiar trinket wrapped in a piece of red cloth in a wooden box— the red dye mostly worn out even though he’d only just bought it a few days ago and given to Magnus only hours before now.

“Then if you’re not him”, he holds up the red omamori, “Then what are you doing with this?”

The man before him who looks swankier than the Magnus he came to love looks at him, smiles and says, “Alexander, I’m sure you’ve already put two and two together so why don’t you go ahead and tell me what you think”.

There’s the saying that the East River is a not a river.

In the same way Alec tries to convince himself that his realisation is nothing but a trick of his mind. But then when Magnus doesn’t blink nor even smiles at him, Alec realises that he’d kept a man waiting for decades, perhaps centuries and at this, his stomach coils.

His stomach coils at his memory while they were at the riverside.

And in that singular file of moments, there are scrolls of words on the tip of Alec’s tongue— words that have no wish of coming out. So Alec lets them stay right there while telling himself that this probable love of his is insanely desperate for how else could he explain any of this? Saying goodbye and hello in the same breath? Even the order is all wrong.

“Is he lonely?” Alec asks, his eyes not leaving the omamori in the box.

Magnus pours them both a drink and tilts his glass to his lips, “If lonely were human then lonely would become him”.

“But he’s not human”, Alec replies, not wanting to believe that for a time much longer then he’s lived, uncertain and frustrated, Magnus had waited.

Magnus makes a painful sound, “No matter what he did and how hard he tried, he couldn’t find his way back to you, Alec”.

And again, Alec winces at the coiling in his stomach, “You don’t mean—“

Magnus swallows his last mouthful of gin, his face tight and Alec can’t tell if it’s from the liquor or his long buried feelings resurfacing.

And at the same time, the weight on Alec’s heart grows heavier than a thousand tonne of steel as he remembers days just before their parting:

“I can feel your gaze literally burrowing through me”, he’d told Magnus, who had become increasingly clingy, taking every chance he got to hold and love Alec.

Back then, Magnus had only smiled and without looking away had replied, “I’m trying to imprint everything about you in my memory”.

Half confused and half trying not to appear flattered, Alec raised an eyebrow and told him, “But why? You already get to see me all day every day”.

Magnus had leaned over in front of him and asked, “But what if that’s not enough?”

Alec couldn’t tell if the question was rhetorical or dead serious so he suggested, “Then why not take a picture together?”

“We could—” Magnus had replied, the look in his eyes was soft and tender but also sadder than sad itself. “But I’m not sure it’ll come back with me”.

“Magnus, you’re talking in riddles again”.

“Am I?” Magnus sighed, but the sound he made was less of a sigh and more like pain, like the softness in his eyes are on the brink of falling like tears, “Alexander, would you live in the past?”

Alec had straightened his shoulders, “You mean like time travel back to my high school days so I could tell myself to study less and make friends, instead?… and also, not to be a stickler for following rules or how about whispering the answers to all those surprise pop quizzes?”

Magnus did let out a laugh but the mirth slowly slipped from his eyes, “I bet your younger self would love that but, I’m more pitching for a time long before that, a time where neither you nor your parents or even their parents are even yet born…”

“…”.

The fictitiousness of the pitch made Alec eventually laugh. “Now, why would I want that?” he asked, but Magnus could see that the idea was still wandering. “There’s no pizza, burgers nor do they have proper toilets”.

“But there’s Jumbo”, Magnus replied, watching Alec keenly, “And everyone loves Jumbo”.

Alec quirked an eyebrow as he asked, “Who in their right mind would time travel just to see an elephant?”

“Point taken”, Magnus had chuckled while looking at the tuff of hair starting to turn grey on his head. He sighed again, sounding desperate this time, “But people do crazy things for love”.  

.

Ever since Alec said goodbye to one Magnus and hello to another one, day and night Alec harbours around Magnus’s apothecary.  Once he put aside the complication of magic and time travel and the possibility of possible impossible things, he has come to enjoy their late night cocktail musings and would fall asleep to the stories Magnus tell him.

Night after night, he listens to stories of Magnus’s thousands of flings and the few he did manage to fall in love with and Alec knows his heart is wicked when he exhales, relieved that all those people are dead and gone and Magnus is now all his. He may not get centuries but finally, starting now, he could spend years with Magnus.  

And time doesn’t seem to mind at all.

In fact, time itself seems have been waiting for this moment— almost like, time was angry at Magnus for rushing before it was ready to give him happiness and that’s why he was punished with a chipped, almost fully broken heart.    
  
"By the way, why are we at a bar buying drinks when you can just snap your fingers?" Alec asks. It's a Saturday and they're at a pool hall.  
  
“Well…”, Magnus hands him a glass of martini, "Well, because it's a date".    
  
Alec is elated. The smile on him is wide and full as he snatches an olive from Magnus's martini and rolls it across his tongue, "Magnus Bane, I suddenly feel like pampering you".  
  
Magnus smiles so full as he tosses the last olive in his mouth, "Then how about you start by taking this from my lips?"  
  
Alec chuckles at the welcome challenge. He really didn’t think it possible but he’s falling in love with the same man again.

Yet,

Something about it all weighs heavy in his heart.

"Magnus, you've lived for hundreds of years, so tell me, what haven't you done?"

By now, they’re walking down a street in Brooklyn— a street lined with lights and high-rise buildings— streets that Magnus no longer looks at in wonder but rather, familiarity.

"Oh, quite a few" Magnus answers, his hands in his pockets.

“Like what?”

He hesitates somewhat, his fingers fiddling in his pockets. "Don’t laugh,” he eventually says, flashing Alec a threateningly look for emphasis, “But, I’ve never flown on a plane before— and don’t ask me why".  
  
“Why?” Alec snickers, not missing a beat.

Magnus rolls his eyes in complete distrust of him, “Even I can’t fly so why should some object? It’s terrible… more nerve-wracking than any acid wash jeans”.

Alec laughs and bounces against him, “Mr. Bane, you’ve got problems”.

“Don’t we all?” Magnus looks up into the sky, and just like the first time they met, Alec sees Magnus looking in the distance at something his eyes couldn’t see.

"Okay, next question, what makes you sad?"

“Who says I’m sad?” Magnus looks at him.

“Aren’t we all?”

Sadness is one of life’s philosophies that Magnus has come to know and accept so he hums a thinking sound, “Have I ever told you the story of Baku?”

“Nope, but I’m sure you will”, Alec answers, his tone proof that he's confused at the sudden change in conversation but with Magnus nothing is too unexpected so he asks, “So, who or what is this Baku?”

“A chimera with an elephant trunk, rhinoceros' eyes, an ox's tail, and a tiger's paws”.

Alec’s eyes immediately shifted over to Magnus, “I can see why that would scare you”.

Magnus does laugh, it’s a light chuckle but the heaviness around the edges doesn’t go unnoticed, “Quite the contrary, actually”, he answers, “Baku, as eerie as it might look, devours nightmares”.

“Oh, then why would that make you sad?”

“It didn’t make me sad”.

“Then what did?”

Under the night light, Magnus’s eyes reflect contemplative moments that has once again ushered sadness to the brink of his eyes— but it’s from that that Alec finally pinpoints where the coiling in his stomach is coming from, and his heart tightens at this, making him so nauseated he can hardly breathe. Then after a few inhales and exhales, in the middle of a street of hurried footsteps and noise, Alec comes to a complete stop, his eyes determined, “Magnus, I’ve to tell you something”.

Magnus turns to him with eyes of worry and unease, “What is it?” he asks, unable to tell if _time_ again had suddenly decided it still isn’t time, “Alexander, what do you have to tell me?”

“Not you”, Alec’s eyes flit to the faded piece of padded red cloth poking out from Magnus’s shirt pocket, “ _Him_ , I want to go to him”.

  _\---_

  _magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'd love to know what you think XD


	6. the rabbit in the moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Magnus is not the only one disappearing. Alec has a message to deliver and it's so important that he would risk getting stuck or lost in time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we've reached the end. Yes, it was short but I really hope you've enjoyed reading this little bizarre world of mine <3
> 
> ps, the timeline is intertwined but you've got this ^^

Love

will draw

an elephant

through a

key-hole.

Time is so everlasting that it’s built upon mysteries.

So when Alec found Magnus on the bank of the river in the middle of Brooklyn bruised and barely breathing, he somehow had an inkling that he’d stumbled upon one of those said secrecies.

But the longer he lived with Magnus and the more he fell in love with him, the more disbelieving the mystery of him had become.

Until,

One day, Magnus told him he’s the offspring of a feline demon father and a human mother— and then very soon after, disappeared in the said river.

Alec would’ve thought it all a bizarre dream if it weren’t for that next mystery of meeting Magnus who he’d just said good-bye to, tell him he’s not the man he’d fallen in love with… suffice to say, things got complicated with Alec also falling in love with the Magnus of now, the Magnus who tells him tales of a life hundreds of years before, stories from decades he’d lived without feeling alive— and Alec’s stomach coils and hurts all the more.

So Alec decides to go.

One morning, Alec arrives to a parade of horses pulling a giant elephant and as he looks on in awe in a distant time at the familiar land, it’s as though Noah’s Ark is emptying itself on Brooklyn Bridge. At nine-thirty in the day trekking from the foot of Courtlandt Street, twenty-one elephants raise their trunks snorting at every train that passes by with old Jumbo marching up the rear.  

Alec inhales deeply, holds it in then slaps himself on his cheeks— he’s on a mission for a more mysterious existence.

“There’s someone looking for you”.

Without looking away from his herbal dispensers Magnus asks, “Who is it? I’m busy”.

Catarina slides to the side, giving way to the visitor, “Said he’s come chasing after you”.

Magnus pauses and in a moment as slow as feather falling in the wind he looks up and immediately the tiny glass bottles with medicine fall from his hands— his heart revving so hard and beating so fast that he has to hold his chest and cover his mouth, afraid his heart might jump out.

Alec walks to him with a smile, “You mentioned elephants but said nothing about the seven camels and ten dromedaries”.  

But Magnus is too stunned and confused to take on the humour, “Alexander… how are—”

“Here?” Alec keeps his smile and walks closer, “You sent me yourself”.

The fold in Magnus’s forehead doubles as he asks, “You met me in the further future?”

“I did”, Alec answers, almost as though feeling proud but really, all he wants to do is hug Magnus but for now, he decides to keep in his emotions, “I did just hours after you left”.

“Then why are you here?” Magnus asks, as he flits about on his toes not knowing whether go hug Alec or kiss him… but then his excitement slowly slithers into sadness as he realises that time really had no intention of letting him slip. “So, it really will take me centuries get back to you”.

“Which is why I’m here”, Alec tells him.

“Do you plan on staying?” Magnus swiftly asks then just as swiftly holds his breath, berating himself for being unreasonable. After all, he just got the answer he’d been searching for— he wanted to find love and then he did, but then he had to give it up because he’d cheated time and time got angry but must’ve forgiven him because clearly one day, thanks to his immortality, he’ll get that very love again.

But still,

“If the magical you couldn’t cheat time long enough to stay then I doubt my mundane ass can beat the odds but that’s not why I’m here”, Alec takes Magnus’s hands in his. “Magnus…”, he holds him tighter, his eyes firmly looking in Magnus’s, “I need you to not be lonely”.

Magnus blanches, his eyes wide and his mouth half open before he replies, “Who says that I am?”  

So Alec moves in, wraps him around the waist and pulls him in, “You did”.  

Right then, Magnus realises that Alec knows more about him the he himself does but he’ll be damned if he didn’t at least try to fight back. “I’m not lonely”, he replies.

Alec looks at him, the colours in his eyes a sad mix of pain and helplessness, “Then that’s good”, he replies, still holding Magnus around the waist, “And in that case, I want you to not just love… I want you to love well… love well with all your heart and then for sure, one day in a moment, time will accept us”.  

“Alexander…” Magnus calls, his voice sounding like a cry, “But won’t my heart be in tatters by then?”

Alec is sure it will be but—, “Maybe yes, maybe no”, he answers, “But leave the healing to me”.

Magnus is nowhere happy that Alec knows more about him than he does and it shows in the trembling of his voice, wanting to say something but not wanting to cry and without looking Alec in the eyes, he buries his face in Alec’s neck instead and whispers, “Nothing about you is fair, Alexander. But worse than that, I don’t think my heart will survive another goodbye to you”.

“It’s not goodbye”, Alec tells him, taking him around the waist again and kissing his cheeks, “It’s see you again”.

.

Imagine this;

Trying to clasp a dream within reach. But then the dream has wings and a mind of its own so it just flies away leaving behind struggling hands that may never reach it.

That’s how impossibly helpless Magnus feels watching Alec disappear among the ripples and fireflies.

But really,

In the beginning, if time had let him be, like taking a bus Magnus wouldn’t mind travelling back and forth through time so long Alec continues to love him. But once he returned, time watched him close and made sure he grew as patient as his love was is meant to behold.

Sitting by the riverside watching the water dazzle under the fading sun, Magnus’s heart aches from the possibility that Alec might not return. Yes, they’d found their way back to each other twice now, but who’s to say they’re allowed a third time? Just suppose Alec gets stuck in the past and have now left him with nothing than memories? Or what if Alec gets lost, dragged into a timeline that’s never his? Just suppose he was meant to fall in love but was never meant to keep it? Suppose centuries after his original spell he still can’t escape loneliness?

He remembers that day they had first parted. How broken he and Alec were, both near stifling, trying hard to keep back their tears and how when he’d gotten back home to his time, one of his biggest regrets was not telling Alec he loved him. Days, he’d spent conjuring up spells and hours upon hours he’d spent at the biggest, oldest libraries, scouring the earth and ancient scrolls for a way back. And when he'd hit rock bottom, he started calling in favours, begging old friends to join powers and help send him back. But that was all for naught, the moment he returned had sealed his roots and he became stuck and at that, he wasn’t sure if that was life’s punishment or encouragement that he already had the spoiler to his future.

Nights upon nights he’d cried to his dear friend, Catarina.

“But Magnus, you’ve got the biggest hope of all”, she’d tried to comfort him.

“What do you mean?” he asked, flicking a wrist and there appears a bucket of ice-cream, one of the few magic tricks he'd brought back from the future with him.

“I mean, you’re immortal. You’ll survive wars and all the outbreaks and you already know what the love of your life looks like”.

Magnus groaned, stuffing a spoonful of pralines and macadamia nuts ice-cream in his mouth, grimacing at the sudden onslaught of brain-freeze, “Almost two hundred years, Cat. I’ll have to wait almost two hundred years… I mean, suppose that was chance and not really a matter of us meant to be? Then I’ll never find him that many years from now… he could be out there but who says I’ll find him and even if I do, who says I’ll find him at the right time and that he’ll love me just the same?”

“Magnus”, she’d taken his hand, rubbing his knuckles softly, “When you left last time, you left not knowing if you would find the one your heart was meant to be with. But by some miracle your heart found its other half… as a matter of fact, instead of you finding him, you said he found you and brought you home and he loved you so isn't that the biggest miracle of all?”

“That’s what I’m saying, Cat”, he sighed in a deep exhale, “Just suppose all that was by pure chance? Supposed he just happened to have been there when I popped up? Just suppose he just happened to be a kind person who helped me out because of circumstance? Cat I—“

“Because…”, she stopped him, rubbing his knuckles again and smiling, “Because Magnus, you’ve loved and lost all your life so when the real thing comes around, of course you’d know the difference”.

Putting things into perspective was Catarina’s forte, so Magnus lived the rest of the night believing in her words and the very magic of his and Alec’s meeting. Back in his cottage, he fixed his eyes on the clothes he wore on his return home. It’s the last thing of his that still smelt of Alec. Wanting to inhale what’s left of Alec, he took the jacket and inhaled long and deep and he was about to fold it away for good when he felt something in the pocket.

The velvety red trinket sent tears to his eyes.

.

And for years he’d kept it, mending it when it got torn and worn by time because somehow, even though he’d loved others, deep down he knew his heart only knew how to love the one he was meant to wholeheartedly love.

Then one day, just when he’d gotten used to life without love, while walking down a crowded street in Brooklyn he spotted the tall figure striding in front of him.  In swift steps he made his way to the man and almost touched him and pulled him to him and hugged him but at last minute, he remembered his place in time and held back. Instead, he trailed Alec, watched him get in and out of the bakery and in the cab that led him to a place Magnus once called home.

From outside, like a guardian angel, Magnus watched. Or rather, he was too afraid— afraid to make contact and have it make him again sad… afraid that their first meeting was nothing but chance and that such a chance wouldn’t happen a second time around.

So he made himself almost candid and stepped right in front of Alec and when Alec immediately recognised him, Magnus knew he still had a chance.

Treading lightly, he took it.

Trying his hardest, he controlled how much his love poured but at the same time, he simply enjoyed the easy flow with which his love for Alec still flowed.

To him, everything felt great until Alec realised he wasn’t the Magnus he was in love with. That must have been it.

Alec loved the Magnus he found on the riverbank— the Magnus who spoke of elephants on a bridge and told him strange tales of rivers and islands that no longer exist.

Knowing this, Magnus doesn’t even try hard to stop him from going because heck, he’d also travelled across timelines just to meet him.

But he did let Alec know the possibility of losing it all.

“Alec, I can get  you across there but I don’t know exactly where you’ll end up— you can end up completely lost and out of reach so are you sure you have to do this?”

Alec had looked at him with eyes as unsure as Magnus’s voice but even so, his heart was hell-bent on finding its other half and making things right, “Magnus, I’ll be back”.

Magnus’s heart felt heavy as though suffocating, “What makes you so sure?”

So Alec pats the omamori half hidden in Magnus’s pocket and replied, “Twice now, I've found you— so next time, come find me”.

.

Which brings him to now, sitting on the bank of the river watching the fireflies dawdle about like fairies on a merry-go-round, the light of the night shimmering on the waters and in the bushes, insects on all fours keeping his company. If all goes according to plan then there’s only five minutes left for Alec to come back to him otherwise—

He holds his breath,

The golden light belonging to fireflies suddenly starts to swirl in the river like illuminated water flowers and then in a blinding light of ripples and blur, Alec appears in a forceful push as though he’s being angrily spit out by time.

Magnus rushes to his feet and catches Alec before he lands and hits the ground and just like that, he holds him tight and caresses him. “Did you fall in love with him more?” Magnus smiles, but as bright and as relieved as he is, he’s unable to stop the tears that finally break their brim and flood his face.

“What if I say, yes?” Alec asks, taking Magnus's hand, breathing in and out, tired from a long journey.

Magnus cracks a tiny smile, “Then I suppose I might be a bit jealous”.

“Then what if I say, no?”

“Then, I might become more concerned”, Magnus answers, now having Alec’s head resting in his lap, “I mean, even back then, I was a very charming guy”.

Alec laughs, a chuckle coming deep from his chest, “Then I suppose I’ll keep it secret”, he replies, still trying to fully orient himself, his chuckle fading into a smile on his lips and in his eyes, “By the way, I was right”.

“About what?” Magnus asks, waving his fingers and making a portal to take them home.

“Right about there being no burgers”.

Magnus laughs, “You went decades upon decades back into the past and that’s your biggest beef?”

“No, but it’s a start”, Alec answers letting himself down from Magnus’s arms when they got to Magnus’s penthouse. “My biggest beef would be that awfully popular milk flavour ice-cream”.

“And what’s wrong with that?” Magnus asks appalled, “I love milk ice-cream”.

“Are you hearing yourself?” Alec asks, his eyes wide in disbelief, “Just about all ice-creams are made from milk so how can you have a milk flavour?”

In time,

Alec moves in with Magnus taking with him the photo frame from his apartment.

“Well maybe those milk cows jumped over the moon”, Magnus answers with a laugh.

Alec rolls his eyes dusting off the picture frame and slipping inside a photo of him and Magnus with twenty-one elephants trekking Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

“Yup, anything is possible”, Alec answers, positioning the picture right above the fireplace where history could tell its own tale, “Who knows? Maybe they’ll make friends with the rabbit”.

“Which rabbit?”

“The one living on the moon”.  

“The one pounding rice cakes?”

“No, the one who hops all night long”.

“I see”, Magnus hums, fixing the photo-frame, “But how did he get up there?”

“A crane took him”.

“I see”, Magnus answers again, such a pointless conversation and yet,

_\---_

  _magnus x alec[](https://twitter.com/hashtag/Shadowhunters?src=hash)_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the end! The quote at the start is by Samuel Richardson.
> 
> Also, allow me to introduce the different mythologies I used:
> 
> \- Jumbo, the elephant: a legit fact! Jumbo was one of the 21 elephants to cross Brooklyn Bridge to test the bridge's sturdiness.  
> \- Namazu, a catfish in Japanese mythology - said to cause earthquakes whenever it escapes the celestial prison and goes on a rampage.  
> \- Jaguar, taken from Mayan Mythology... a sort of were-jaguar deity  
> \- The Rainbow serpent - there are various interpretations across cultures but I used the Aboriginal Australian version... it's believed to be the origin of the LGBTQ colour  
> \- Baku, the dream eater is taken from a blend of Chinese/ Japanese mythology.  
> \- The rabbit in the moon - also a blend of Chinese and Japanese mythology.
> 
> I've created a strange world so if you've gotten this far, I hope you had even a tiny bit of entertainment.


End file.
